The start of the week I was feeling a bit under the weather with a cold and a heavy dose of man-flu. It's probably for the best I didn't play as I felt pretty lethargic too so just bummed around taking vit-c shots and watching movies. Luckily I managed to recover in time for my birthday on Wednesday which was spent chilling with friends/girlfriend and generally having a very good day.
I still didn't really have the poker-buzz on Thursday and insta agreed to meet up with Ledders and his friend Tim who had arrived in Nottingham on the train to chill out and grab some food in the evening. We had a few beers and donked around on Guitar hero then headed out to Pizza Express before finally getting a cab over to Dusk Til Dawn after hearing about a free bar for all the players who had registered for the £1k starting the following day. Ship it!
Well, we would ship the free drinks if they hadn't stopped serving the free drinks when we arrived! Already slightly merry we ventured onto the cash tables and I proceeded to spew off £500 in a mix of £1/£2 NLH and £2/£2 dealers choice. TBH I wasn't playing horrifically but wasn't exactly hitting the deck too hard either! I wasn't too fussed anyway, wanting to save all my run-good for the tournament the following day, plus I've been on a pretty hot run lately online up just over $7k on the month so far, so a little bump in the road won't hurt profit figures too much anyway!
Come Friday and I'm feeling alive and kicking and can't wait to crush the Monte Carlo event. My table draw appears to be pretty good with a few relatively weak players mixed in with Nik Persaud (London live pro) and Tom Middleton (HitTheHole online - very very good player). It was quite funny really as I'd only just been playing (and losing) to HitTheHole the previous week after he raped me to pieces in the $300 6max and is in my opinion one of, if not the best, tournament player in the UK at the moment.
Play started at £1k with 255 runners turning up all aiming to take the ~£75k first place. It was going to be a long, but fun few days.
Disappointingly I managed to lose half my stack relatively in a quite interesting spot. The HJ, who seemed relatively weak limped and I iso raised As9s. It folded around to him and he quickly called.
I cbet the dry Qx4s3x board after he check-called and I barrelled the Ts on the turn. By the river the board read Qx4s3xTsQs. So I river the nut-flush but the board paired. Regardless, he decided after check-calling the first two streets to lead into me and I raised for value thinking a large part of his range was random Qx he limped like QJ/Q9/QK or perhaps some sort of flushdraw that got there somehow (maybe 5s6s) etc. I also didn't think he'd have 33/44 much in his range as even the most passive of opponents normally try to get more money into the pot with their baby sets on drawy boards at some point during the hand. As it happened, I re-popped his river lead and he thought for 10second and then 4bet me. Sighhh/fold I guess...He probably had QT or maybe a badly played low set.
Anyway after that hand I managed to go on a little rush and without showdown rebuilt my 16k stack to 98,100 to end the day with. I was very happy with my play, I felt I put a lot of pressure on people and was picking my spots well.
Come day 2, I hit the gym in the morning again and felt excited for playing my best game of poker. I managed to slowly build my stack up to 170,000 before losing a monster flip with 99 to AK leaving me back at 98,000. 100 chips less than I started the day with 4 hours in. Back to the grind... I was moved tables recognising a few faces and not recognising a few others. Including mammoth stack Jerome Bradpiece of whom Cos informed me on the dinner break was a regular on the UK-poker scene and an extremely loose aggressive player when he had chips. This could be fun...
The first hand back it folded to him on the button and he opened 2.1x. The small blind folded and it came to me in the BB with AQs and 33bb remaining. I elected to 3bet, he thought for a little while and 4bet me. I hollywooded for 10 seconds then crammed it in his face and he folded. Easy game!
2 hands later and it folds to him again, he opens and I elect to 3bet the button with As4s on the button as a bluff. He tanked for a while and looked visibly frustrated before folding somewhat angrily. Nice....I've put him on tilt :)
The very following hand I look down at 99, surprise surprise, Jerome opens again and I decide to keep the pressure on with my 45bb's aiming to 3bet/call it off feeling he was getting really pissed off with me ruining his plans of running over the table. So he raised, I 3bet, he thought for a while and 4bet and I 5bet crammed it in his face once again.
He thought for a little while before calling with JJ. Really kind of a lame spot especially as I didn't get there ;) but whatevssssss! I came about 20 off the money. I'm not so sure about the hand. Given the dynamic online I'd be cramming it in the same situation all day of the week. But I was 45-50bb deep in a very well structured live tournament with 75 minute levels. Yes I could have picked a better, lower variance spot. I'm sure the play was +EV but maybe not optimal. This could just be me doubting my play as well after bricking yet another day 2 tournament though. Who knows, maybe one day I'll bink it when I'm behind and go on to win...
Nah not likely ;) I'll just add it to the long tally of lifetime MTT bricks I've made. Maybe next time, eh..
This forth coming week I'm heading back down to Dorset for Christmas with the family and plan on putting my last two MTT sessions of the year in on Monday and Tuesday. I'd love to be +$3k on those two sessions to finish off the year on a $10k month, but that WOULD be running good!
After that, I'm off on holiday with a friend to India to finish the year off. It's currently a stable 30c every day there and I can't wait. I love exploring new cultures and I love the cuisine. I'm going to have a pretty open mind on my travels and hope to do some reflecting at the same time. More to come!
Gl at the tables all...
ul bust, but think you played it fine, definitely do the same in your spot.
ReplyDeleteHave an awesome time in India! If you want to read about some of the places I went to I blogged about India while I was away. Anyways, was nice chatting to you in nottingham, glatt!